Haunted Lost City/Thunderbird
This week, the team travels to Peru to rediscover the lost city of First Light. According to locals who live in the towns below, the city is a space of crumbling ruins that's haunted by former residents. Witnesses say they've seen strange figures and lights in the mountains and have also heard eerie sounds coming from that area. Though there is allegedly a treasure buried within the grounds of the city, no one has ever been brave enough to investigate. That is of course, before Josh and the team decide to dig in.Recently, a pilot in Anchorage Alaska spotted a giant bird-like creature flying high in the sky. Before his sighting, many Alaska natives had also made reports of the massive bird, which they estimate as having a wingspan of nearly 20 feet. People speculate that the giant bird is related to the prehistoric pterosaur. Either way, it definitely ain't Big Bird. Episode Summary Getting to the Lost City proves to be no easy feat. The team first tries to brave treacherous paths by horse but an unknown force spooks the animals and Gabe is unexpectedly thrown from his steed. Just then, the locals who were assisting the team on their trek to the Lost City take this bad sign as a good time to exit. So the crew, with their injured cameraman in tow, is left to their own devices and pillage forward into the unknown. Through heavy fog and non-existent roads, they finally arrive and find themselves 11,000 feet high in the mountains. While Sharra and Bicha stay behind to monitor the cameras at base camp, Rex, Jael and Josh head out to investigate. While surveying the area Josh picks up a heat signature on this thermal imaging camera just south of base camp. Oddly, the figure doesn't move and doesn't appear to have human or animalistic features. Then, the team hears the eerie sound of something crying or yelling. Emotions continue to rise when Josh makes a wrong turn while following the noise and falls into a gap in the ground. Upon further inspection, he Jael and Rex see that this hole is part of an underground tunnel system. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. The tunnels are extremely unstable and too small to fit through, so the crew strings a camera down under to see if there are any details (read: treasures) hidden below, but there search doesn't produce any results. Back at base camp Sharra notices that there's a strange light flashing across one of the cameras. She radios to the rest of the team to see if they noticed anything, but it turns out, they hadn't. Having gathered evidence of the tunnel, the strange noises heard and the flashes seen on the cameras the team decides to head home. Back in LA, Josh looks for answers in the evidence with Ghost Hunters Dave Tango and Steve Gonsalves. Steve and Dave believe that the images on the camera are an entity because if it were an animal, the image would be more solid and would have lingered near the lens longer. Josh and his team believe their audio picked up a breathy voice saying "No" from the tunnel. And it also sounds like a voice says, "Touch him. So while the Lost City may have been abandoned by the living it still seems to be populated by the dead. So the team gears up — North Face coats in tow and head to Anchorage, Alaska to go bird hunting. When they arrive, Josh and the crew suit up and fly (since mounds of snow have covered the roads …nice) to the tiny village of Dillingham where the bird is most frequently seen. They're welcomed to town by a frigid blizzard and soon realize that it will be impossible to scout the area by foot, so they go up, up and away in a chartered plane. From the air, Josh spots a prime location where they can set up base camp. Josh and the crew set up four infrared cameras within a 300-mile radius from base camp to scan the sky, tree lines and possible roosting areas of the bird. They also set up trap cameras through the woods that are baited with moose meat. Hopefully the thunderbird isn't vegan.When Josh and Jael set up the last trap camera they hear a loud sound that's echoed through the woods. They recruit Mike and the parabolic dish from base camp and go in search of the culprit that sounds like it's going boom in the night. Meanwhile Rex takes off by himself to survey the area. And just when he thought he was safe— or maybe he never thought he was safe— something incredibly large flies above him. He heads back to base camp to alert the rest of the team and they all notice that one of the trap cameras caught imagery of something in the sky near the trees. When they get to the camera they notice that 35 images were taken and the bait is gone. With temperatures on the continual decline, threatening to freeze their equipment and their bodies, the team heads back to the warmth and wrap up their adventures for the night. Back in Los Angeles, Josh recruits Mike Dee to assist in the analysis of the evidence. The tree footage proves to be inconclusive and the images taken by the trap cameras are blurred because the creature was too close the lens. Yet Mike Dee is able to come up with a plausible conclusion by doing more research. He finds that most likely what natives are seeing flying high above the trees at night is the Steller's Sea Eagle. This massive bird, with a 10-foot wingspan, hails from Northern Japan and Eastern Russian and more than likely migrated to Alaska from the Bering Strait. So for now, there is no real world monster, just a big bird a long way from home, that's baffling the locals. Quotes Category:Episodes Category:Season Three Episodes